


The River Flows in You

by BrownieFox



Series: Mayor In All But Name [2]
Category: Gravity Falls
Genre: Gen, Post-Weirdmaggedon, There are swears, and explain some things, because the old dudes are alone, but just like barely, gravity falls!stan au, hoping to go into more of stan's powers in this one, mabel dipper soos and wendy are mostly just mentioned, or maybe mayor!stan au ish?, picks up right where the last fic ended
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-11-20
Updated: 2019-11-20
Packaged: 2021-02-16 05:27:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,501
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21502615
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BrownieFox/pseuds/BrownieFox
Summary: Grunkle Stan, after the events of Weirdmaggedon, as he reunites with his family, figures out what's become of him, and works out what the next step in his life is now that summer is almost over and he's supposed to leave the Shack.
Relationships: Dipper Pines & Stan Pines, Ford Pines & Stan Pines, Jesus "Soos" Alzamirano Ramirez & Stan Pines, Mabel Pines & Stan Pines
Series: Mayor In All But Name [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1549879
Comments: 6
Kudos: 65





	The River Flows in You

As far as Stan was concerned, it all ended pretty well.

Sure, his memory of the past few very ambiguously-existent days was a bit cloudy and gave him a bit of a headache if he tried to think about it too much, but he remembered enough. He’d managed to rally the people of Gravity Falls to find the ten of the zodiac, the prophesized ten who would defeat Bill Cipher when he inevitably came to Gravity Falls and gained a physical form. A solid and stable plan had been crafted with much help and input from Dipper, Mabel, and McGucket, and then executed perfectly. And Stan was able to do something, to save his town, to be a hero.

The details of exactly what his heroic act had been were the fuzziest part of his memory. But he did remember being more filled with energy and strength than he had ever know, of absorbing Bill Cipher whole and using the demon’s own energy to end Weirdmaggedon – an odd sense of peace, of coming home, of rest.

And then, to top it all off, Stan even got to wake up afterwards, something he definitely hadn’t been expecting.

“Stanley!” Ford cried – both verbally and literally – as Stan groaned and opened his eyes a crack. The sun was too bright, he quickly decided, and shut his eyes again. “No, Stanley, stay with me!”

“I’m awake, I just don’t want to stare at the sun.” Stan grumbled. He felt like shit, like somebody had torn him apart in pieces. That feeling when somebody tears your nail out to try and get you to talk or to get you to ‘learn a lesson’ or some other bullshit, only it was every inch of his body that felt like that.

“You’re alive, oh thank god you’re alive Stanley.” Two six-fingered hands were grabbing at Stan’s shirt. “C’mon, we’ve, we’ve got to get up, the kids-“

Stan didn’t hear what they Ford said next. It was pretty rambley anyway, and Stan was sure Ford wasn’t entirely aware of what he was word-vomiting. Right, the kids, how had he forgotten about Mabel and Dipper? Stan’s brow scrunched up. It was hard to think, like he was wading through molasses, but he could do this at least, could push through it.

He could see the inside of Soos’ grandma’s house. It still smelled all musty and old with the slightest hint of raspberry jam that hadn’t come out of the carpets. Soos and Mabel and Dipper were all on the couch, close together, still crying. Mabel had her summer scrapbook with her and they were looking through it, pointing out all the memories with Stan in them. It made Stan’s heart ache. There was an attempt to soothe them, a memory of the rooftop party and good times, of the portal and him begging the kids to trust him, something he could impart on them, but reaching out like that made everything about him feel strained and a million times worse so he aborted the effort and instead focused on where he currently was. Stan shifted, trying to sit up. He blinked his eyes open, and the sun was still far too bright but dammit his kids were crying over his supposed death, and he’d be dammed if he left it stay that way.

“Let’s get to Abuelita’s house.” He groaned

“A-Abuelita?” Ford stuttered.

“Soos’ grandma. We lived at her house for a bit.” Stan explained.

“Stan, I know that Soos means a lot to you, but the kids-“

“They’re at Abuelita’s.” Stan managed to push himself into a sitting position. God his old old bones were not meant for this. “It’s in the town. Old house, has pictures of Soos everywhere, can’t miss it. I’ll warn you though, that lady definitely cheats at bingo. Y’gotta keep your wits about ya and play just as aggressive.”

“How do you play aggressively at bingo? Never mind, more importantly, how do you know where the kids are?” Ford shook his head as he changed the question. Stan shrugged.

“Same way I know you don’t feel like Gravity Falls is your home. Now c’mon, help an old man get to his feet.” Stan put out a hand, and when Ford didn’t immediately take it he flapped it around. That seemed to catch Ford out of whatever he was thinking enough to grab Stan’s arm. As it turned out, standing was way more painful than just lying on the ground feeling like garbage. But all in all it was a small price to pay to see the kids again. Stan swayed on his feet, Ford having to carry a lot of his weight, and briefly Stan zoned back out and refound the kids. The scrapbook had been left on the ground while they had some lunch that Soos’ Abuelita had made for them.

“… Stan, what have you gotten yourself into?” The question was mostly mumbled, but clearly still meant for Stan.

“Hey, ‘Weirdmaggedon’ was your fault too. You made the portal to begin with.” Stan rolled his eyes. He managed to make it a few steps forward before starting to pitch forward and Ford was forced to steady Stan again. This time Ford pulled one of Stan’s arms around his shoulder.

“No, not that. I… I don’t consider Gravity Falls home, I suppose. No place has really felt like home since, well, it doesn’t matter since when. But how do you know that? Have you been messing around with magic over the past thirty years?” Stan couldn’t help a snort of laughter at that, which he instantly regretted as his lungs and ribcage informed him that any kind of quick movement was very much frowned upon.

“Please, I’m not an idiot, Ford, not matter what you might think.” Stan’s voice was mostly a croak as he spoke around the pain. He caught Ford giving him a worried look. “Nah, this whole thing started a week or two ago, nothing to worry about. And hey, I saved the day so it can’t be that bad, right?”

Ford didn’t look very convinced about this fact. It was a good thing Ford didn’t need to approve or anything; Stan’s cool new powers were his to worry about.

It was slow getting from the lake to the town, especially considering how Stan wasn’t exactly in the right shape to be moving around at the time. He’d occasionally check back in on the kids. During lunch, Wendy came by. Her whole family had come along to drop her off at Abuelita’s and made it clear she was to call them so they could escort her home. Stan could feel that it had nothing to do with a lack of trust in Wendy’s abilities and everything to do with love.

“Manly Dan’s always felt kind of like a roaring fire with that love.” Stan mumbled out loud before he could stop himself. He wrinkled his nose at how mushy it sounded.

“Really?” Ford no longer sounded so accusatory, and instead was far more curious about what was going on with Stan. It’d been a long time since Ford had given Stan this kind of attention, and Stan had known all he’d need to do was tell Ford about the weird abilities to get it. Right now it felt more genuine than he’d expected it to be, a curiosity of not only Stan’s abilities but also of Stan himself. The same pure-hearted curiosity that had brought Ford to the town all those years ago, to explore the woods with a brilliant grin, running around Stan’s la-

Uh, hm.

That wasn’t quite right, was it.

“Really,” Stan finally said while one of his steps stomped down on the ground with more force than all the others. He was trying to enjoy a nice walk with his brother, the least Gravity Falls could do was give him a little bit of privacy. “It’s really nice to see, especially after the death of his wife. He was sad for a long time after that.” Okay yeah, that was the kind of things he was talking about town. Stan stopped on the ground again.

“Is your leg okay?” Ford asked and Stan did his best not to noticeably glow under the attention to his wellbeing.

“As good as the rest of me.” Stan replied. “C’mon, let’s just get to the kids. And why don’t you tell me about what you were up to while in the Fearamid. That place was a pain and a half trying to look into.”

Stan could practically feel the question bubbling beneath Ford’s skin, everything he wanted to know about what had happened to Stan. But Stan himself wasn’t entirely sure, and if he was going to try and explain he’d rather do it with the whole family present. Ford seemed to realize that, and for now just went into the ways he’d been tortured that made Stan boil with anger.

The smallest of earthquakes, almost unnoticeable, shook Gravity Falls.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm hoping to write a few more chapters about this au and delve into what Stan's powers are and can do and how they effect him as a person, as well as what exactly happened with him during weirdmaggedon. And also how Stan and Ford figure out their relationship to each other this time around. 
> 
> If there's any questions in particular you have, please tell me so I make sure that I get around to answering them!


End file.
